


I’ll hold your hand

by scatteredconstellations



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, First Kiss, Fluff, Glitter, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, M/M, Pride Parades, Quality Banter, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, a WHOLE lot of fluff, au where Derry is slightly less homophobic, no pennywise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 08:04:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20672027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scatteredconstellations/pseuds/scatteredconstellations
Summary: Eddie knows he’s in love with Richie even if he doesn’t want to admit it to himself. He believes that someday they’ll be somewhere far away from Derry. But he doesn’t even allow himself to hope that maybe, someday, they’ll be datingBut they areOr: the two different pride parades Eddie and Richie went to





	I’ll hold your hand

**Author's Note:**

> This was sitting in my notes for a while so I finished it instead of finishing the angsty one I was writing

**Derry, Maine 1982**

Derry hadn’t had many pride parades. In fact 1982 was the fourth annual Derry pride festival. It wasn’t even a festival really. It was just a medium sized crowd of people, hanging outside the town hall wearing rainbow. 

The parade goers walked from the town hall to downtown Derry which was five blocks. It wasn’t all the long but the paraders were spirited which was all that really mattered. This was the first pride festival Eddie Kaspbrak had been to but all the other losers were going and convinced him to come. 

Eddie knew his mom would never let him go to something gay so he lied and told her he was going to bev’s house. Sonia reluctantly agreed and half an hour later he was sitting in the living room while bev brushed glitter on his face.

“Eds looking good” Richie exclaimed suddenly, walking into the room. Eddie opened his eyes once bev was done and laughed at how stupid Richie looked. He was wearing a rainbow tie dye shirt, rainbow suspenders and multicolored knee socks.

“You look ridiculous” Eddie said  
“Yeah ridiculously hot” Richie said putting his hands behind his head in what bill called the “model position” and then sitting next to Eddie. Eddie rolled his eyes at him.  
“Wow you’re glittery. Bev did you put glitter everywhere?” He questioned

“You wish” Bev said rolling her eyes at him 

The rest of the losers appeared and they piled into two cars to drive downtown. Bev was wearing a black shirt and rainbow skirt, with a lopsided rainbow painted on her cheek. Bill was wearing a normal outfit but had glitter on his cheeks and a rainbow necklace. 

Stanley was wearing rainbow sunglasses and the same rainbow suspenders Richie had. And Ben, who was more subtly about it was wearing a blue shirt and shorts with a rainbow stripes on the bottom. Eddie also noticed there were little rainbow stars drawn across his face and he bet bev had painted them.

“Ok let’s go!” Bev declared and they piled into Richie and Bev’s cars. Eddie ended up in Richie’s passenger seat with Bill in the back seat. The ride downtown was quiet. Eddie was nervous. He had never been to something this clearly gay before. 

Richie saw eddies knee bouncing and put his hand on his knee.  
“Hey it’s okay” he said taking his eyes off the road to look at Eddie  
“JESUS FUCK DON’T DO THAT YOU’RE GOING TO KILL US ALL!” Eddie exclaimed pushing Richie’s hand away. 

They finally got to the festival and Eddie got out of the car taking a deep breath. Bill went ahead to join the rest of the group but Richie hung back.  
“Are you ok?” Richie asked concernedly  
“Yeah” Eddie said although he was definitely not ok

“We don’t have to go you know” Richie said taking his hand and squeezing it  
“No I want to” Eddie suddenly said determinedly  
“Ok. Just I’ll be there the whole time ok?” Richie asked  
“Ugh don’t remind me” Eddie retorted They started heading towards the group. Richie hadn’t dropped his hand but Eddie didn’t mind. 

Eddie had never seen this much rainbow before in his life. Richie had dropped his hand at some point and was grinning at Eddie from a chair while a lady painted a rainbow heart on his face. Eddie had honestly never seen this many gay people in real life and he was kind of amazed.

Everywhere he looked he saw boys holding hands with boys and boys wearing dresses. Girls holding hands and people wearing flags like capes. He even saw some parents and laughed at the idea of his mother ever coming to something like this.

Halfway through the parade bev had convinced him to let some lady paint rainbows on his face. For once he wasn’t worried about whether the lady was using the right tools or if he was allergic to the paint. He was just happy to be here. Eddie didn’t know if he had ever smiled this much in his life. 

Richie kept his word and stayed with him the whole time and when they passed a group of people on the sidelines holding angry flags Richie grabbed his hand and squeezed it. He didn’t let go even after they passed the protesters. Richie hadn’t stopped smiling this whole time and when he caught Eddie staring him he just smiled softly at him. 

The glitter on Richie’s face made him even prettier than normal and Eddie found himself unable to look away. There was glitter mingling with his freckles and some on his eye lashes and he looked so happy Eddie was finding it really hard to stop himself from kissing that dumb smile off his face. The parade ended and Eddie got into Richie’s car tired but happy and with decidedly more rainbow items. 

“That was good” Eddie said smiling sideways at Richie  
“Yeah it was” Richie said smiling back. He looked away from the road again to look at Eddie and Eddie punched his arm.  
“STOP it really ARE going to kill us both!” Eddie exclaimed  
“Sorry eds you’re just so pretty” Eddie blushed severely and looked away from Richie and out the window instead.

They drove to their neighborhood in silence until Eddie spoke up.  
“Can I go to your house I need to wash everything off and change clothes” he said sadly  
“Sure” Richie said and drove past Eddie’s house to his own. It was just another reminder that he could probably never tell his mother his sexuality because he already knew what she would say. 

The atmosphere in the car had definitely shifted since they started driving and Richie got out of the car silently and walked to his front door. Eddie followed him, the happiness from the day almost completely gone. He made it to Richie’s room and sank onto his bed. Richie followed him cautiously and before he even noticed it he was crying. 

“Eddie..” Richie said softly which only made Eddie feel worse because he only called him Eddie when he was being serious. He felt himself being wrapped in lanky arms and buried his face in Richie’s shoulder.  
“It’s okay” Richie said. Eddie shook his head against his shoulder  
“It’s stupid”  
“It’s not stupid” he pressed his face into Richie’s shoulder and cried some more. 

He cried until he felt like he was on the verge of an asthma attack and then breathed in the smell of Richie’s shirt until the smell calmed him down.  
“Sorry, I got glitter all over your shirt” Eddie said lifting his head off Richie’s shoulder  
“That’s not what I’m worried about” Richie said looking at him with big worried hazel eyes 

“My moms stupid” Eddie mumbled into Richie’s shoulder “I can’t tell her because she’s going to hate me” he whispered. He was refusing to look at Richie and felt a few stray tears slip down his face.  
“Hey” Richie said softly bringing his hand to Eddie’s cheek, “screw her” he said wiping at the tears running down Eddie’s face.

Eddie let out a wet chuckle, “now really isn’t the time to be making your mom jokes” he said and then Richie did probably the stupidest thing he’s ever done and before his brain could stop him he leaned down and kissed Eddie. It was warm and firm and sweet and stopped all of his worrying without saying anything. Eddie wrapped his arms around Richie’s neck because Richie was reassuring him that it didn’t matter what his mom said because someone cared about him. 

They pulled apart but Richie stayed close enough to him that their foreheads touched and whispered the only thing that Eddie needed to hear like a secret just for him. 

“I love you Eds” 

**Los Angeles, California 1986**

They were sophomores in college and Richie was overly excited about the pride parade in California. He was kind of valid though because it was definitely going to be bigger than the sad thing Derry called pride. They had been dating for three years and when Richie had gotten into UCLA Eddie had applied there too because he wasn’t about to leave Richie (if he had gotten into NYU though they would’ve made the long distance thing work). 

A week before the parade Richie had excitedly burst into their apartment to show Eddie the shirts he had bought. They were white with rainbow stripes at the sleeves and bottom that said I’m his and he’s mine on them. Eddie pretended he hated them but secretly likes them. 

On the day of the parade Eddie puts the stupid shirt on and rolls his eyes when Richie says he looks cute. Eddie’s friend whose a theatre minor stole him some glitter and Eddie forced Richie to take off his glasses so he can put glitter on his face. He’s sitting on a chair leaning above Richie’s face painting glitter across his freckles and Eddie remembers thinking Richie looked pretty with glitter on three years ago. 

“How do I look?” Richie asked putting his glasses on once eddies done  
“Good” Eddie says softly brushing his cheek. He’s sure he’s blushing ridiculously at this point  
“Aw Eds do ya think I’m cute??”  
“No!”  
“Do you have the face paint? Let me paint something on you” 

Eddie handed Richie the face paint, “if you paint a dick on my face I’m breaking up with you” he said  
“What if it’s a quality dick?” Richie asks  
“No!” Eddie exclaims

Richie handed him the mirror after finishing his painting to reveal a very screwed up rainbow.  
“What happened to it?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Why does it look like a second grader drew it?”  
“YOU MOVED YOUR FACE WHILE I WAS DOING IT”  
“No I didn’t!”

Richie snatched the mirror back and put rainbow face paint on his lips like lipstick.  
“C’mere” he said  
“No”  
Richie leaned down and kissed his cheek leaving a rainbow kiss mark.  
“Why..” Eddie groans  
“You love it” Richie claims  
“No i don’t” Eddie says but he leaned forward to kiss him once anyways. 

They leave the house looking probably ridiculous but it doesn’t matter because they’re happy. The LA pride parade is probably three times bigger than the Derry pride parade and they find a large crowd of rainbow covered people in the street.  
“Wow” Eddie says mostly to himself. He feels Richie grab his hand and drag him into the mass of people. 

There are floss and drag queens and balloons and people making out an confetti. Eddie is a little overwhelmed but also very excited. At one point the drag queen float asks for volunteers and Richie volunteers so enthusiastically that they let him on the float and give him a boa. He tries to dance sexily but instead he looks ridiculous and the drag queens kick him off the float with a free back stage pass. 

“Babe babe do you think I have a career in drag?”  
“I don’t think so but at least you were enthusiastic”  
Eddie feels warm when he sees young couples holding hands and acting in love and he wonders if he and Richie would’ve gotten together sooner if they had grown up here and not Derry. 

The parade ends and there’s feathers and glitter everywhere and they start to walk back to the apartment.  
“Did you see all the young couples?” Eddie asked  
“Young what are we 85?” Richie exclaimed  
“You know what I mean”  
“Yeah” Richie said 

“Do you think we could’ve been like that if we hadn’t grown up in Derry?” Eddie asked  
“Maybe but probably not because we’re idiots” Richie said  
“We really are” Eddie laughed  
“Remember when Lily Harson asked you to prom and I pretended I wasn’t mad about it?” Richie questioned  
“Yeah” Eddie said fondly 

They walked in silence for a few blocks before Richie spoke again.  
“I like how we got together though”  
“Yeah it was literally at a gay event how great is that?” Eddie said 

They walked 2 more blocks

“Do you think we’ll be together forever?” Eddie asked quietly  
“Yes” Richie stopped walking “I can’t imagine not being with you” he said and then blushed at his own cheesiness. Eddie felt his cheeks flush too.

“I love you dickwad”  
“I love you too spaghetti”

**Author's Note:**

> Leave me kudos if you liked it even _little_ bit so I can feel good about myself


End file.
